Year Two of the Matt Quatraro tenure. Time to take a step up this year. Active in free agency and trades this offseason. A new look pitching rotation and bullpen. Will the young players take the leap up offensively? Bobby Witt extension? New stadium? Will Vinny recover from injury? Salvy taking aim at the Royals record book? Will Cole Ragans turn into the best Royals starting pitcher since Greinke 1.0?
Free Agents/Trades Acquisitions
Seth Lugo, SP
Michael Wacha, SP
Kyle Wright, SP
Hunter Renfroe, OF/DH
Will Smith, RP
Chris Stratton, RP
Nick Anderson, RP
Adam Frazier, 2B
Garrett Hampson, INF/OF
Matt Sauer, RP [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry:
Royals fan: Our minor league system sucks
Royals fan: Don't trade our minor league guys, you would ruin our system!
Me: Make the fucking playoffs and see what happens.
Our minor league sucks so bad we have to be more protective of the assets we actually have. If we had a talented and deep farm system it would make more sense to trade guys. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Who do you think we'd possibly trade for a relief pitcher that would dim this future if traded away? How often do prospects become even average big leaguers? It's like you guys don't realize how light the return is for a RP.
Last year Aroldis Chapman was the best RP on the market and the Royals got back 2 guys that weren't even in their top 30 prospect rankings. One was a 25 year old.pitcher coming off back to back TJS. Cole Ragans is a god damn stud, but no one expected this.
Not just for relief guys. People fail to realize how light the return is for anything other than a Soto situation. Rental pitchers and hitters don't go for top 20 prospects anymore. You aren't getting 3 months of CC sabathia for Matt Leporta in 2024.
The whole "let's have a fire sale and restock the system" is mostly nonsense. Ragans is a nice player obviously, but nobody is giving up their entire farm system for a guy with 2 TJ surgeries and barely one whole year of success. Lugo is a nice story, but he's 34 and has never pitched more than 146 innings in a season. The return isn't going to be massive there either. Salvy has maybe one more year in him, if that. If we got say, the 50th best prospect(around what Verlander got last year) and the 78th best prospect and some other fringe prospects for all of those guys, are we really all sitting around thrilled at where the team is at? I doubt it. That doesn't put us in the top 10 of minor league systems. There still aren't any cant miss guys. The future is just as unsettled as if we traded away some of our guys at the deadline this year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Our minor league sucks so bad we have to be more protective of the assets we actually have. If we had a talented and deep farm system it would make more since to trade guys.
You're one of those dumb shits that keeps ignoring the fact that you don't have to give up much of anything to improve this team. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SithCeNtZ:
Not just for relief guys. People fail to realize how light the return is for anything other than a Soto situation. Rental pitchers and hitters don't go for top 20 prospects anymore. You aren't getting 3 months of CC sabathia for Matt Leporta in 2024.
The whole "let's have a fire sale and restock the system" is mostly nonsense. Ragans is a nice player obviously, but nobody is giving up their entire farm system for a guy with 2 TJ surgeries and barely one whole year of success. Lugo is a nice story, but he's 34 and has never pitched more than 146 innings in a season. The return isn't going to be massive there either. Salvy has maybe one more year in him, if that. If we got say, the 50th best prospect(around what Verlander got last year) and the 78th best prospect and some other fringe prospects for all of those guys, are we really all sitting around thrilled at where the team is at? I doubt it. That doesn't put us in the top 10 of minor league systems. There still aren't any cant miss guys. The future is just as unsettled as if we traded away some of our guys at the deadline this year.
Cole Ragans would absolutely bring back a massive return. He's untouchable to me, though. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Cole Ragans would absolutely bring back a massive return. He's untouchable to me, though.
I don't really see why people keep saying this. It has no basis in the last 5-10 years of baseball transactions and how teams treat trades. The closest to Ragans that I can find is when the Rays shipped Snell to the Padres with two years left of control in 2020. All that netted them was the 25th-ish best prospect and 3 other players, none of which were top 100 prospects. This is for a guy who already had a cy young and without the massive injury history of Regans. And that big prospect, a pitcher, is already out of the majors. None of the other guys did anything and it was a big loss for the Rays. So is one top 100 prospect and some mediocre other guys really worth trading Regans? People keep acting like Regans is a sure fire bet to bring in multiple top 100 guys and we will just be loaded in the minors, when in reality there is nothing pointing this actually happening because teams just don't do that anymore except in generational talent cases. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SithCeNtZ:
I don't really see why people keep saying this. It has no basis in the last 5-10 years of baseball transactions and how teams treat trades. The closest to Ragans that I can find is when the Rays shipped Snell to the Padres with two years left of control in 2020. All that netted them was the 25th-ish best prospect and 3 other players, none of which were top 100 prospects. This is for a guy who already had a cy young and without the massive injury history of Regans. And that big prospect, a pitcher, is already out of the majors. None of the other guys did anything and it was a big loss for the Rays. So is one top 100 prospect and some mediocre other guys really worth trading Regans? People keep acting like Regans is a sure fire bet to bring in multiple top 100 guys and we will just be loaded in the minors, when in reality there is nothing pointing this actually happening because teams just don't do that anymore except in generational talent cases.
Injury history isn't even a little concerning. He had two TJS, but only because they rushed him back after the first one. Also he has the rest of 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, and I think 2029 until he's a free agent. 4-5+ years of control for a guy that has shown that he can be a legit #1 over a full season of starts and strikes out the amount of people he strikes out?
Yeah he'd bring back an absolute haul. It's not like a team trading for a ****ing prospect. He's pretty well known commodity at this point. The Blake Snell trade isn't even remotely close to the same and the reason you can't find a comp that's close is because teams don't ever part with guys like Ragans. [Reply]
Originally Posted by SithCeNtZ:
Not just for relief guys. People fail to realize how light the return is for anything other than a Soto situation. Rental pitchers and hitters don't go for top 20 prospects anymore. You aren't getting 3 months of CC sabathia for Matt Leporta in 2024.
The whole "let's have a fire sale and restock the system" is mostly nonsense. Ragans is a nice player obviously, but nobody is giving up their entire farm system for a guy with 2 TJ surgeries and barely one whole year of success. Lugo is a nice story, but he's 34 and has never pitched more than 146 innings in a season. The return isn't going to be massive there either. Salvy has maybe one more year in him, if that. If we got say, the 50th best prospect(around what Verlander got last year) and the 78th best prospect and some other fringe prospects for all of those guys, are we really all sitting around thrilled at where the team is at? I doubt it. That doesn't put us in the top 10 of minor league systems. There still aren't any cant miss guys. The future is just as unsettled as if we traded away some of our guys at the deadline this year.
Yeah, exactly.
Position players with control are still kind of expensive to acquire, but half seasons of relief pitchers cost you a lotto ticket. Ragans was a lotto ticket who just happened to hit for KC.
Normally, you're getting guys like C.J. Alexander back in return.
They could improve this team a lot by trading for a few RP rentals. [Reply]
Originally Posted by GeorgeZimZam:
To have a brighter future, i.e. a better shot for sustained contention. It is a frustrating spot: seemingly on the brink of contention, yet with a paltry stable in the farm system and few guys beyond Witt that are true cornerstones to build around. And like you said: reliant on veterans. Veterans that don't really factor into the long-term plans, and probably won't sustain their current performance levels.
If the Royals wanted to go in that direction, it should have been done last winter.
You don't do that at 49-43 in the era of tournament baseball where the Texas Rangers and the Arizona Diamondbacks played in the 2023 World Series. [Reply]
Position players with control are still kind of expensive to acquire, but half seasons of relief pitchers cost you a lotto ticket. Ragans was a lotto ticket who just happened to hit for KC.
Normally, you're getting guys like C.J. Alexander back in return.
They could improve this team a lot by trading for a few RP rentals.
I was hoping you would comment on his whole "Ragans wouldnt bring back a haul" stuff. He would wouldn't he? [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
I was hoping you would comment on his whole "Ragans wouldnt bring back a haul" stuff. He would wouldn't he?
He would bring back the best return of anything the Royals could trade beyond Bobby Witt, but it wouldn't be a crazy type of haul like what the White Sox got for Sale or anything. I don't think it would be as much as the Rays got for Snell, either. [Reply]